Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Warsh has appointed a slate of prominent figures from business and economics to lead five task forces aimed at developing recommended changes to the central bank's operations.
Among the co-leaders announced Thursday are venture capitalist Marc Andreessen, economist Raj Chetty, and former Bank of England governor Mervyn King. These task forces, established following Warsh's call for "regime change" at the Fed last year, will examine various aspects of the central bank's functions, including its approach to monetary policy, data analysis, and the growing influence of new technologies.
One task force will specifically focus on how artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies could impact productivity and jobs. Warsh has previously stated his expectation that AI will fundamentally alter the U.S. economy. This group will be co-led by Marc Andreessen, a notable investor in AI and crypto firms, Asha Sharma, an executive vice president at Microsoft and CEO of its Xbox unit, and Charles Jones, an economist at Stanford currently on leave with Anthropic.
Economist Raj Chetty, known for his work using large datasets to track families' economic mobility, will co-lead a task force focused on evaluating the data sources used by the Fed. He will be joined by former Walmart President and CEO Doug McMillon and Kevin Murphy, an economics professor at the University of Chicago.
Another task force will delve into the Fed's balance sheet, which has significantly expanded since the 2008-2009 Great Recession. This group will be co-led by Raghuram Rajan, former governor of the Reserve Bank of India; Karen Dynan, a Harvard economist and former Treasury official; and Jeremy Stein, a former Fed governor.
The task force on inflation frameworks will be co-led by Greg Mankiw, a prominent economist from the George W. Bush administration, and Nobel laureate Thomas Sargent of New York University.
Mervyn King, the former governor of the Bank of England, will lead the task force examining the Fed's communications.
Warsh stated that each task force will meticulously assess whether the policymakers' means, methods, analytical tools, and policy approaches can be enhanced. The appointment of these task forces suggests Warsh's intent to build consensus for any proposed changes among his Fed colleagues, rather than unilaterally imposing them.